England's interim coach, Stuart Lancaster, is facing a decision which, for better or worse, will define his selectorial instincts. A confident Welsh team will shortly be heading along the M4 and Lancaster has a dilemma: does he fight the dragon's fire with fire or opt for a more traditional bucket of cold water? The smoke signals emerging from the England camp are conflicting, which suggests Tuesday's training session in Bagshot could tilt the balance.

Many will regard the whole issue as a no-brainer. The fit-again Manu Tuilagi is the biggest available danger to Welsh shipping. On the flip side the Leicester centre has played only four club matches since the World Cup. In his absence the Saracens trio of Charlie Hodgson, Owen Farrell and Brad Barritt have proved to be something of a Bermuda Triangle for opposition midfields, even when the prevailing tide has been strongly against England.

With Jamie Roberts and Co certain to steam down the 10 or 12 channels, there is a case for retaining the durable Barritt – "At the end of the day they've got two legs and without those legs they can't run," said the Saracens centre – and inviting Tuilagi to take the game to Wales more than England have done so far. That, though, would deprive them of Farrell's dead-eyed boot, with Hodgson assuming the goal-kicking duties. Alternatively, they could stick with Farrell, alongside Tuilagi, and ignore the fact neither player has yet celebrated his 21st birthday.

Or do they retain the status quo and rely on Tuilagi to blast the team home as he did Leicester in Watford on Sunday? Get it right and Lancaster could yet earn himself the permanent coaching job. Get it wrong and Wales have a backline capable of taking painful advantage.

All this is clearly exercising the minds of Lancaster and his lieutenants. England will require more oomph and tempo around the fringes, which is likely to yield first Test starts for Ben Morgan and Lee Dickson at Nos 8 and 9 respectively. Courtney Lawes looks set to return to the match-day 22 and, whether Tuilagi starts or not, England are promising to inject more dynamism into their attacking game.

"Our mentality will be to play as much as we can," said Lancaster, fully aware Wales will provide his team with their stiffest challenge to date. "If the weather's good I'm sure ourselves and Wales will be approaching it with an attack-minded mentality. When we got width and shape into our game [against Italy] we looked a far better side. That's the way we want to go, definitely."

The only snag is that all-singing back divisions are not born overnight. "Look at some of the great attacking sides in the Premiership ... they've been refining what they do for the past three to four years," added Lancaster. "I'm not suggesting it's going to take that long but it is going to take time. There is an element of patience required."

In virtually the same breath, however, Lancaster could be heard stressing the importance of the bench and hinting Tuilagi and Lawes had played insufficient recent rugby to start such a significant match. Lee Mears (bicep) and Charlie Sharples (dead leg) have already been ruled out and Toby Flood will have to play a training-ground blinder to earn a recall.

"We take into consideration what we see in training in terms of match sharpness," Lancaster said. Might he contemplate a brace of power centres? "We'll make this selection based on what we deem fit for the Wales game, but long-term we need to look at different combinations. It's a matter of when you choose to do that. Sometimes it might be at the start of a game, or you might end up with that combination in the second-half." Wales, in other words, will have to wait and see.